OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — The deadline for submitting public comment on a proposed boundary change in the North Olympic Peninsula’s national park has been extended, and workshops have been scheduled in Port Angeles and Sekiu.
Olympic National Park, which covers 922,650 acres, plans to buy 240 acres of land just north of Lake Ozette’s Umbrella Bay, between the lake and Hoko-Ozette Road, from the Cascade Land Conservancy for about $663,000, Barb Maynes, park spokeswoman, said.
The additional land would change the boundary of the park for the first time in at least 20 years.
The park has extended the public comment deadline from March 22 to April 16, and added two public workshops.
“We understand that people have questions about this proposal,” said park Superintendent Karen Gustin in a statement, “and we want to address those as much as we can.”
The workshops, both scheduled from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., are set for:
• Friday at the Sekiu Community Center, 42 Rice St.
• Thursday, April 1, at the park’s visitor center, 3002 Mount Angeles Road, Port Angeles.
The conservancy, which is based in Seattle, bought the property when it was advertised for sale in March 2008 with the idea of adding it to the park, Maynes said.
The inclusion of the 240 acres of land would allow the park to provide added protection of sockeye salmon habitat at Umbrella Creek near Lake Ozette, she said.
The transaction depends on National Park Service funding and an act of Congress — without which no national park can expand.
A few months after the public comment period ends, the park service will request action by Congress, Maynes said.
The final transaction will be “perhaps a year [from now], although it is hard to say,” she has said.
The last time the park expanded its boundaries was about 20 years ago, according to the UNESCO World Heritage list, when the park added a coastal strip to its boundaries.
The addition is consistent with objectives in the park’s general management plan released in March 2008, Maynes said.
For more information, phone the park at 360-565-3004.
Written comments, addressed to the attention of Wayne Hill, should be mailed to National Park Service — Columbia Cascades Lands Resources Program Center, 168 S. Jackson St., Seattle, WA 98104.
